Review of Lakers 2019–2020 City Edition/Lore Series Uniforms
I’ll start out by saying, I am not a big fan of the NBAs City Edition uniforms as a whole. Although my wife will tell you that I jump at any chance to get merchandise for my favorite team, I don’t like that the NBA uses the City Edition uniforms as an excuse to try and shove more merchandise down the fans throats, at the expense of the aesthetics of the game. Call me a traditionalist, but as a fan, I like the one home uniform set, one road uniform set, and maybe an alternate set. Okay rant over.
Now, there are some teams that have designed better City Edition uniforms than others. Take the Sixers for instance. A nice clean look that makes sense for the team and city, in that it pays homage to their city, Philadelphia. While some nice designs have been put out there, a lot of teams seem to throw a random look out there because the NBA is making them, like the Mavs or the Bulls.
For the Lakers City Edition uniforms they turned it into a series called the Lore Series, where they allow a Laker-great to help design the uniform, in honor of them. A really cool idea, that not too many teams could pull off. The first year’s sets were designed by Kobe Bryant.
They played off Kobe’s “Black Mamba” nickname with a black uniform with snake skin pattern. I don’t typically love when teams go Black For Black’s Sake (BFBS), a phrase coined by Paul Lukas of uni-watch.com, when a team that doesn’t typically have black in their color scheme has a black uniform(s). But in this case it worked and was a cool idea to help personify the Black Mamba nickname, personality, and mentality of Kobe Bryant.
The next City Edition uniform was designed by none other than Magic Johnson.
I liked these because I thought they were a nice alternate the the Lakers normal purple uniforms. They had Showtime in pinstripes going down the uniform, fitting since Magic was the heart and soul of the Showtime Lakers. A nice subtle touch that added character to the look.
This years City Edition/Lore Series were designed by one of the best big men of all time, Shaquille O’Neal.
These might be my favorite Lore Series uniform set yet. Aside from the white letters and numbers, at first glance the overall style is reminiscent of the days when Shaq played for the Lakers, specifically when they went on their dominant run from 2000–2002. This is a great idea as it hearkens back to the teams history and pays respect to the Laker legend at the same time.
Although the uniform looks simple at first, when you look closer, there are a lot of really cool, meaningful details. The big one that I’ve heard a lot of people talking about is “MDE (Most Dominant Ever)” written into the side panels. What better way to honor the most dominant big man of all time? Further, I love that Shaq decided to pay homage to Dr. Buss as well as all of the Lakers players who have had their number retired. The stars on the side panels hold the retired numbers for the Lakers’ greatest players of all time. The last feature, and maybe my favorite, is the design of the side panels. They have a vortex pattern that Shaq says was inspired by the “Triangle Offense” that the Lakers so dominantly ran during their 3–peat from 2000–2002. Such a creative way to implement the Triangle Offense into the design.
Overall I’m very pleased that the Lakers, and Shaq, decided to keep a traditional look but fill it with creative and meaningful Easter Eggs. While I am very happy with the Lakers normal uniforms, I expect that the 2019–2020 Lore Series uniforms will blend nicely and look good on the court.
According to LockerVision, the Lakers will debut the 2019–2020 City Edition/Lore Series uniforms at home against the Wizards on Friday, November 29th. Make sure to tune in and let me know what you think!
